Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Members of the Alexander City Special Response Group were put through their paces during a special training mission on Locust Street Tuesday.

The response group, which consisted of members from the Alexander City and Dadeville Police Departments, as well as the Tallapoosa County Sheriff's Department and Narcotics Task Force all swarmed an abandoned house of Locust Street Tuesday afternoon to hone their skills.

Alexander City Police Chief Avery Morris said the response group conducts special training missions about twice a month.

"Everybody works together," Morris said. "The more everybody trains together, the smoother it goes in the real world."

The training session began with a short brief on the mission, much like what would happen if the event were real.

During the briefing, the team was informed of the suspect, who was played by a member of the Alabama Army National Guard Counter Drug Program, and shown pictures of the home where he supposedly resided.

The suspect was believed to be dealing drugs from the residence and was supposedly armed. The team's job was to forcibly enter the residence, arrest the suspect and then make a sweep of the area for any narcotics or stolen merchandise.

After the briefing, the team made sure they had a search warrant to ensure the raid of the home was legal.

"The search warrant is given to the man who breaches the door," said Lt. Randy Walters of the ACPD.

After arriving at the scene, the team lined up in single file outside the home's front door fully garbed in bulletproof vests and helmets, ready to engage the suspect.

With weapons in hand, the team burst through the home's front door and quickly scanned the entire building and apprehended the suspect.

See....they LIKE violence. Doesn't that alarm anyone but me? And the photo clearly shows these 'gung-ho boys' think they are SOLDIERS instead of small town, neighborhood cops. Can you say Military Police State?